Number of convicted benefit cheats soars

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....rds-Sky-TV-bills.html

Whilst I agree and welcome the fact that the Government are at last cracking down on these benefit cheats, are they not being slightly hypothetical considering their record on expenses cheating?

[mccfluff]

hypothetical ? :-)

[dotty.]

they're using it as a smoke screen, they think the public in general will be delighted the benefit agencies are stopping people claiming benefit fraudulantly, the expenses scandal is now old news (they hope) and the general public will have forgotten.

[dotty.]

oh hang on , they check people's viewing habits to see if a man may have ordered a sky sports package! so what if there is a young lad there and his estranged father agreed to pay for the package? what if a grandparent offered to pay for it? what if the lad has a paper round and pays for it himself? how incredibly random, they should have checks in place to sit outside the bookies to see how many people on benefit place bets day in day out or sit in the pub whilst waiting for the results.

[LazyGun]

I don't think the measure - to monitor, identify and prosecute those guilty of cheating on benefit payments - is hypocritical, but I do think that some MPs were privileged.

What is hypocritical is the fact that many MPs were able to avoid the public embarassment, censure of their constituents, or any criminal charges because they were given the opportunity to pay these "mistaken payments" back with no penalty, unlike those people who have been shown to cheat on their benefit payments.

I would also like to see more initiatives announced for tax gathering, especially when you read the stories about non-payment of corporation tax by some of these large multinational retail chains...

[VHG]

Trouble is "convictions soar 40%" is rather misleading.

If they caught 100 last year, and 140 this year, that is indeed a 40% increase.

But as a NUMBER it is very low.

40% is pretty meaningles on its own.

[emmie]

hypocritical don't you mean? and yes they are, but what's new about that.

[anotheoldgit]

HYPOCRITICAL

Yes alright you clever asses, I made a mistake big deal.

[dotty.]

i'm not a clever ass I knew what you meant and chose to let it go

[emmie]

my mum does it all the time, she can't get to grips between anecdote and antidote, makes me laugh at any rate.

[dotty.]

my mum used to get all her furniture from MI5

[ludwig]

More MPs should have been prosecuted in my opinion. I suppose it was difficult to do that though considering..

a) The majority of them were doing it.
b) It appeared to be condoned - sorry, make that actively encouraged - by the people who were supposed to be policing it - ie the fees office.

..but yes, the expenses fiddlers are basically no different to benefit cheats.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Ludwig would you not agree that an MP earning £100k and fiddling say £5k per year is far worse than a benefit claimant claiming £5k and fiddling say £3k

[ludwig]

I don't know really. It depends on their circumstances. You'd have to look at it on a case by case basis to decide which example of thieving was the worst.